The Water Act (2007) that has as its key objects: 1) 3d(i) to ensure the return to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction for water resources that are over-allocated or overused; and 2) 3d(ii) to protect, restore and provide for the ecological values and ecosystem services of the MDB.

A Basin Plan (enacted in November 2012) with its key objective to achieve Sustainable Diversions Limits (SDL) by reducing surface water diversions by an equivalent to, on average, 2,750 GL/year by 1 July 2019 while noting that CSIRO concluded that increases in actual Basin stream flows of 3,000 GL/year would be insufficient to meet South Australia’s environmental water requirements.

Current State of the Basin

It is more than five years since the Basin Plan was enacted and $6 billion has been spent on water recovery. Much more could have been achieved for far less because subsidising infrastructure to acquire water for the environment is, based on Australian government data, 2.5 times more expensive than buying water entitlements directly, and might be much more expensive after accounting for reductions in return flows. Little evidence exists that key objects of the Water Act (2007) have been realised or key socio-cultural values been adequately supported because:

While there has been some localised recovery, there is very little evidence of Basin-wide environmental improvements since 2011. The 2017 State of the Environment Report, supported by other evidence, gives a ‘poor’ assessment grade of inland water flows and “longer-term downwards trends in flows seen in nearly 50% of stations,” while ecological processes and key species populations are ‘very poor’ with a deteriorating trend.

There is no observable relationship between volumes of water acquired by the Australian government for the environment and stream flows at the Murray Mouth over the period 2007-08 to 2016-17 and, for many of the water recovery infrastructure projects, no scientific evidence that they have increased stream flows.